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Saturday, October 08, 2005

> THE hierarchy of the> Roman Catholic Church> has published a teaching> document instructing the> faithful that some parts of> the Bible are not actually> true.>> The Catholic bishops of> England, Wales and> Scotland are warning their> five million worshippers,> as well as any others> drawn to the study of> scripture, that they should> not expect "total> accuracy" from the Bible.

First off, "the Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland" donot make this a "teaching from the Catholic Church." Yes, they arePART OF the Magisterium, but they are not THE Magisterium.

Second, the article/position is actually somewhat accurate in thatmany parts of the Bible are figurative or even poetic, and notintended to be a literal history lesson. That being said, many of theverses quoted at the bottom do not fall into that category. Hence, Idetect some bias in the reporter's claims. I'd like to see theoriginal statements from those bishops before we can comment muchfurther.

Scott WindsorFounder of http://www.americancatholictruthsociety.com

Original article:

"Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible"

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teachingdocument instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actuallytrue.

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warningtheir five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study ofscripture, that they should not expect "total accuracy" from the Bible.

"We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracyor complete historical precision," they say in The Gift of Scripture.

The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of thereligious Right, in particular in the US.

Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story ofcreation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwin's theory of evolution inschools, believing "intelligent design" to be an equally plausible theory of howthe world began.

But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and attimes conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that thiscountry's Catholic bishops insist cannot be "historical". At most, they say,they may contain "historical traces".

The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the17th century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting anear-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by advocating theCopernican view of the solar system. Only a century ago, Pope Pius X condemnedModernist Catholic scholars who adapted historical-critical methods of analysingancient literature to the Bible.

In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblicalscholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is"God's word expressed in human language" and that proper acknowledgement shouldbe given both to the word of God and its human dimensions.

They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways "appropriate tochanging times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries".

The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say,but continue: "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other,secular matters."

They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its "intransigentintolerance" and to warn of "significant dangers" involved in a fundamentalistapproach.

"Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of onenation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and evenconsider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others."

Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in Matthew 27:25, "His blood beon us and on our children", a passage used to justify centuries ofanti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must never be used again asa pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt. Describing this passage as anexample of dramatic exaggeration, the bishops say they have had "tragicconsequences" in encouraging hatred and persecution. "The attitudes and languageof first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish Christians should never againbe emulated in relations between Jews and Christians."

As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops citethe early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends fromother cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clearthat the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching andthat they could not be described as historical writing.

Similarly, they refute the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation, thelast book of the Christian Bible, in which the writer describes the work of therisen Jesus, the death of the Beast and the wedding feast of Christ the Lamb.

The bishops say: "Such symbolic language must be respected for whatit is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect to discoverin this book details about the end of the world, about how many will be savedand about when the end will come."

In their foreword to the teaching document, the two most seniorCatholics of the land, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop ofWestminster, and Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrew's andEdinburgh, explain its context.

They say people today are searching for what is worthwhile, what hasreal value, what can be trusted and what is really true.

The new teaching has been issued as part of the 40th anniversarycelebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document explaining theplace of Scripture in revelation. In the past 40 years, Catholics have learntmore than ever before to cherish the Bible. "We have rediscovered the Bible as aprecious treasure, both ancient and ever new."

A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story toevery primary school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who asked histeacher why Mary and Joseph had named their baby after a swear word. TheBreakout Trust raised £200,000 to make the 30-minute animated film, It's a Boy.Steve Legg, head of the charity, said: "There are over 12 million children inthe UK and only 756,000 of them go to church regularly.

That leaves a staggering number who are probably not receiving basicChristian teaching."

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

UNTRUE

Genesis ii, 21-22

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and whilehe slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the ribwhich the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought herto the man

Genesis iii, 16

God said to the woman [after she was beguiled by the serpent]: "Iwill greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forthchildren, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule overyou."

Matthew xxvii, 25

The words of the crowd: "His blood be on us and on our children."

Revelation xix,20

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in itspresence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received themark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrownalive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone."